- VIVAnews/Anhar Rizki Affandi
VIVAnews – The Constitutional Court Chief, Mahfud MD, last week urged the government to make an extradition accord with Singapore in relation to the large number of suspects in Indonesia who escaped to Singapore.
However, he today acknowledged that his statement was mistaken because an extradition accord has actually been signed by the two countries, although the House of Representatives has not yet ratified it.
The Singapore’s Embassy in Jakarta corrected Mahfud’s statement last week. According to the embassy, the extradition accord between Indonesia and Singapore has been signed by both countries in 2007.
“The signing of the accord was also witnessed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Bali on April 27, 2011,” said the First Secretary for Political Affairs of the Singapore’s Embassy in Indonesia, Herman Loh, in a written statement to VIVAnews on June 4, 2011.
Mahfud finally acknowledged that the extradition accord between Indonesia and Singapore was missed from his observation. That is why he made inapt statement.
“Something was missing from my observation. Last week I asked for an Indonesia-Singapore extradition accord. But actually it was already there,” said Mahfud after a general lecture on Indonesian ideology of Five Principles at Law Faculty, Indonesian Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Monday, June 6, 2011.
Mahfud then asked the government to ratify the extradition accord because it will not be effective as long as it has not been ratified. This is despite, said Mahfud, the absence of the ratification will open the chance for corruptors in Indonesia to flee to Singapore.
Earlier, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Michael Tene said that there is a difference of position between Indonesia and Singapore in viewing the extradition accord. Singapore wants the extradition accord to be in the same package with Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA), while Indonesia prefers the two agreements to be autonomous.
“Singapore links the two agreements, while Indonesia doesn’t. Indonesia wants the extradition to be ratified without awaiting the DCA ratification,” explained Tene. Indonesia’s current position is it is willing to ratify the extradition accord, but not the DCA, which it deems as still problematic in some of the articles.
The articles include the issue of allowing Singapore to conduct military training in Indonesian territory, including combat training with other countries. This issue is deemed as detrimental to Indonesia as Singapore would know exactly the condition of Indonesia’s geography of Indonesian Military’s (TNI) training area, which is under Indonesia’s sovereignty.
Therefore, despite the thorny issue is only regarding the DCA, the extradition accord between the two countries is actually fine. However, Singapore refuses to ratify only one of the agreements. The country wants the extradition accord be ratified along with the DCA or not at all. “As a result, the extradition accord can’t be put into effect yet by the two countries,” said Tene.
Reported by : Erick Tanjung | Yogyakarta
Translated by Indah Lestari
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